Iteration and Release

[Jennifer Hall]

Ok, I am not as familiar with Rally as some others but the videos and trainings tell me that we can use the KANBANs in rally for work instead of a sprint if that is how the work is being done.  I am doing more of a Scrumban but Kanban fits most of the aspects.

with that being said - a Kanban is a on-going process and we don't stop at the end of a sprint to assess or turn over work, we continue with work and plan on a bandwidth/ capability platform.  So it doesn't seem to me that I can change the criteria of the team capabilities list to work from a complexity/capability versus the plan estimate and estimate numbers... 
1)I I want to change the criteria the team capability list calculates from?
2) what is affected if I set my Iteration and Release to a fiscal year?
3) is using the iteration the only way to pull stories out of backlog?
  -  because I have work started with no iteration or release still showing in my backlog list.
4) Can I change the Fields/Columns in a KANBAN app to fit better with my process?
5) is there a way to get the task to calculate time/ManHours from the estimate when adding to actuals in tasks?

------------------------------
Jennifer Hall
------------------------------

[Christopher Pola]

Ciao Jennifer,

This is an initial response to the post; definitely think collaboration and iteration/increments in terms of teasing out a full reply. Let me know if any of this is helpful. I will use bullet point to keep my response concise, and I will reference the numbered items from your original post accordingly.

In general:

• The beauty of Rally is that it supports different methodologies (Kanban vs. Scrum) for the same 'backlog' of work, and generally that just means navigating to the appropriate page. For example: Portfolio Kanban, Team Board pages support Kanban. Scrumban (mix of Scrum and Kanban) is something that you will see supported via the Iteration Status page. Note: Iteration being the XP terminology for a Sprint etc.
• No. 2). - to start to answer this or foresee any 'issues' first let's define Iteration and Release. These are 'planning' timeboxes, so planning horizons to look at 'What can be done or how much can be done, or what got done?' in a specific timebox/planning horizon. The other 'design truism' is that multiple Iterations/Sprints make up a Release + and Stories/Defects/Test Cases are scheduled into an Iteration/Sprint, and Features scheduled into a Release. So, for Kanban you might not use these timeboxes at all, it's more management of 'flow' at Story and Portfolio Item level. Based on that information, is this question still valid or is there a problem/goal with using these Timeboxes for the team's flow/Kanban?
• In general are these questions for a single Kanban team or something at scale across multiple teams of teams?
• No. 3). - I think this is specific to the Backlog page, is that a fair assumption? Scheduling Work Items into a timebox (Release or Iteration) does move an item off that Backlog page. For formal Kanban that page might not be as useful. Do you use User Stories page or Work Views for User Stories? What about Portfolio Items? More curious, do you have a State or Flow State on the Kanban Board that shows Backlog status (whatever criteria used for that and what means to the team)?
• No 4). - This is very possible on the Track > Team Board page (team Kanban) - you can configure Flow States on the Team Board Settings (gear icon). Some Custom Apps with Kanban Boards allow for configuring the columns based on other object attributes/fields.
• No 5). I think I get the gist of that. I am investigating. No 1). I think a conversation will help. Would you be up for that or provide a bit more of a nuanced example?

I hope this is a helpful start.

Cheers,
-Chris

[Jennifer Hall]

Chris,
I may jump around a lot to answer or expand on your above responses, so bare with me.  and after I send this to you, it might be better if we meet for a conversation to discuss further - I just wanted you to get this info to maybe help you answer my questions easier.

I am creating a new process for Rally for Fiscal Year (FY23).  I was hired to run schedules and PM for this company and after many, many hours of watching your videos and playing in Rally I found that the current use was at Story and Task Level Only and none of our reports were working properly.  I have created swimlanes for kanban pages. but I am not familiar with the "in the background" restrictions or rules in Rally to know if my design will actually work.

1) do you have to use the Schedule State with swimlanes to produce results in reports?
2) I want to use cycle/lead time charts but they seem to use story points with no option for Task Estimate hours, or the ability to set any other standard for reporting (swimlanes vs schedule state?
3) if i was to use the kanban pages instead of the list pages, with backlog in it, I would still have to use the iteration to pull it out of backlog even if the kanban doesn't necessarily use iteration/release info?
4) Team Capacity - uses iterations - so i would have to use it there also.
5) I am in the process of learning about splitting User Stories - i don't know if that will help or hurt my progress in the new procedures....
6) off topic but a question:  I have more than 1 work space and more than 2 projects in a workspace and my saved views don't stay once i switch pages/projects/workspaces.  is there a fix for this?


well, i have more but I guess I can discuss them when we actually talk if you are available later today or when ever.  let me know.  I will be out for a bit after sending this email but will be back this afternoon.

------------------------------
Jennifer Hall
------------------------------